Past, present, future: Surveillance tools for a changing epidemiological context

Anna Bershteyn, PhD is an Associate Professor of Population Health at New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

Anna Bershteyn, PhD is an Associate Professor of Population Health at New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

Parinita Bhattacharjee, has 25 years of professional experience in the public health sector ranging from HIV to sexual and reproductive health and disability. She has held leadership roles across large scale intervention projects with key populations funded by BMGF, USAID, CIDA and the Government of India. Over the past decade, she has provided technical support to Kenya's Ministry of Health, contributing to the expansion of key population programs and the development of national policies and standards. Parinita also serves as the technical lead for the key population pillar in the South-to-South Learning Network, focusing on strengthening the HIV prevention response through peer-to-peer learning across 15 African countries. Her expertise extends to conducting research projects with key populations including two randomized controlled trials on HIV structural drivers. Currently based in Nairobi, Kenya, with Partners for Health and Development in Africa, she continues to make significant contributions to HIV prevention, key population programming and policy development.

Laboratory Director/Medical Virologist, Research Scientist based at the Botswana Harvard Health Partnership (BHP), formerly the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (www.bhp.org.bw), an Research Associate with the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health (www.hsph.harvard.edu) and Extraordinary Professor with the Stellenbosch University (www.sun.ac.za) with more than 20 years in clinical trials, basic science research and laboratory medicine. Sikhulile interested in pathogen genomics (multiple pathogens), viral evolution, drug resistance, molecular epidemiology and phylogenetics to inform interventions. He is involved studies to characterizae early HIV-1 subtype C infection, HIV cure and viral reservoirs, cross-sectional methods for estimating HIV incidence. His laboratory team is involved in various clinical trials, observational studies, and pathogen genomics research, including HIV, SARS-COV-2, Hepatitis, Human Papillomavirus, Tuberculosis, sapovirus, Norovirus, and STIs. He has made several significant contributions to the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission studies and studies that have informed birth outcomes, health of HIV-exposed uninfected infants, surveillance of HIV incidence and monitoring of HIV mutations associated with drug resistance and emergence of variants of SARS-COV-2. Recently, he led a team at the BHP that was among the first in the world to sequence the Omicron variant that has become the most dominant circulating variant worldwide. Sikhulile recently several awards for his and his team’s scientific contributions, including Festus Mogae HIV Research Excellence Award (2022), National Outstanding Researcher Award (2023), Presidential Order of Honor (P.H.) and Order of the Great Zimbabwe (OGZ) national award. His laboratory team received a Presidential Order of Meritorious Service for the scientific contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other International awards include, the German Afrika Foundation Award 2022, Martin Luther Jr Humanitarian Award and was nominated by Time Magazine for the most influential people in 2022, Top 100 most influential Africans by the New African Magazine. He has over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Pubmed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1xEvrNnomxt5f/bibliography/public/
ORCID ID: www.orcid.org/0000-0003-3821-4592
Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sikhulile_Moyo

Mary Mahy is the Director of the the Data for Impact Practice at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. She is responsible for compiling and analyzing data on HIV epidemiology and the HIV response for countries around the world. Mary is a demographer by training and received her doctorate in population dynamics from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Pavlo Smyrnov is the Program Director at the Alliance for Public Health in Ukraine, bringing over 20 years of experience in managing nationwide health programs, particularly within the context of a concentrated HIV epidemic. Throughout his career, Pavlo has significantly contributed to the development of interventions targeting social and risk networks of hard-to-reach and marginalized populations, including people who inject drugs, sex workers, and men who have sex with men. His work has been instrumental in understanding factors associated with undiagnosed HIV cases, improving case finding, and enhancing linkage to care. The data collected from these interventions have paved the way for applying machine learning techniques to guide recruitment efforts towards clusters with higher probabilities of undiagnosed infections.
In recent years, Pavlo has been heavily involved in developing integrated mobile HIV and TB services amid the ongoing war and the resulting humanitarian and healthcare crisis. These projects deploy mobile clinics to provide essential healthcare services, including counseling, medical services, diagnostics and linkage to treatment. They specifically target individuals living in areas with non-functional or damaged healthcare infrastructure and those who lack access to medical services, doctors, and medicines.

Anna Bershteyn, PhD is an Associate Professor of Population Health at New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

Parinita Bhattacharjee, has 25 years of professional experience in the public health sector ranging from HIV to sexual and reproductive health and disability. She has held leadership roles across large scale intervention projects with key populations funded by BMGF, USAID, CIDA and the Government of India. Over the past decade, she has provided technical support to Kenya's Ministry of Health, contributing to the expansion of key population programs and the development of national policies and standards. Parinita also serves as the technical lead for the key population pillar in the South-to-South Learning Network, focusing on strengthening the HIV prevention response through peer-to-peer learning across 15 African countries. Her expertise extends to conducting research projects with key populations including two randomized controlled trials on HIV structural drivers. Currently based in Nairobi, Kenya, with Partners for Health and Development in Africa, she continues to make significant contributions to HIV prevention, key population programming and policy development.

Laboratory Director/Medical Virologist, Research Scientist based at the Botswana Harvard Health Partnership (BHP), formerly the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (www.bhp.org.bw), an Research Associate with the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health (www.hsph.harvard.edu) and Extraordinary Professor with the Stellenbosch University (www.sun.ac.za) with more than 20 years in clinical trials, basic science research and laboratory medicine. Sikhulile interested in pathogen genomics (multiple pathogens), viral evolution, drug resistance, molecular epidemiology and phylogenetics to inform interventions. He is involved studies to characterizae early HIV-1 subtype C infection, HIV cure and viral reservoirs, cross-sectional methods for estimating HIV incidence. His laboratory team is involved in various clinical trials, observational studies, and pathogen genomics research, including HIV, SARS-COV-2, Hepatitis, Human Papillomavirus, Tuberculosis, sapovirus, Norovirus, and STIs. He has made several significant contributions to the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission studies and studies that have informed birth outcomes, health of HIV-exposed uninfected infants, surveillance of HIV incidence and monitoring of HIV mutations associated with drug resistance and emergence of variants of SARS-COV-2. Recently, he led a team at the BHP that was among the first in the world to sequence the Omicron variant that has become the most dominant circulating variant worldwide. Sikhulile recently several awards for his and his team’s scientific contributions, including Festus Mogae HIV Research Excellence Award (2022), National Outstanding Researcher Award (2023), Presidential Order of Honor (P.H.) and Order of the Great Zimbabwe (OGZ) national award. His laboratory team received a Presidential Order of Meritorious Service for the scientific contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other International awards include, the German Afrika Foundation Award 2022, Martin Luther Jr Humanitarian Award and was nominated by Time Magazine for the most influential people in 2022, Top 100 most influential Africans by the New African Magazine. He has over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Pubmed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1xEvrNnomxt5f/bibliography/public/
ORCID ID: www.orcid.org/0000-0003-3821-4592
Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sikhulile_Moyo

Mary Mahy is the Director of the the Data for Impact Practice at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. She is responsible for compiling and analyzing data on HIV epidemiology and the HIV response for countries around the world. Mary is a demographer by training and received her doctorate in population dynamics from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Pavlo Smyrnov is the Program Director at the Alliance for Public Health in Ukraine, bringing over 20 years of experience in managing nationwide health programs, particularly within the context of a concentrated HIV epidemic. Throughout his career, Pavlo has significantly contributed to the development of interventions targeting social and risk networks of hard-to-reach and marginalized populations, including people who inject drugs, sex workers, and men who have sex with men. His work has been instrumental in understanding factors associated with undiagnosed HIV cases, improving case finding, and enhancing linkage to care. The data collected from these interventions have paved the way for applying machine learning techniques to guide recruitment efforts towards clusters with higher probabilities of undiagnosed infections.
In recent years, Pavlo has been heavily involved in developing integrated mobile HIV and TB services amid the ongoing war and the resulting humanitarian and healthcare crisis. These projects deploy mobile clinics to provide essential healthcare services, including counseling, medical services, diagnostics and linkage to treatment. They specifically target individuals living in areas with non-functional or damaged healthcare infrastructure and those who lack access to medical services, doctors, and medicines.